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Down Syndrome NSW
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Wednesday 15 April 2009

RIDBC: Auslan Tutor for iPhone and iPod

The Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children is always at the leading edge of using technology, and has recently introduced another innovative resource. Developed with the interests of deaf children as its priority, it will also be useful for families and professionals working with children and adults for whom sign is a significant support for communication because of intellectual disability. From the RIDBC website:

RIDBC Auslan Tutor is a portable video-based Australian Sign Language (Auslan) teaching resource developed specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch.

It is designed for families of young deaf children to assist them to learn Auslan and promote early communication between parent and child. Over 500 signs are included. These signs were carefully chosen as those most needed by families in their interactions with, and teaching of, their young deaf children.

Each sign has five corresponding entries which can be viewed on demand as often as necessary. The five entries are:
  • a photo of the handshape used to form the sign
  • a video clip demonstrating the single sign
  • a video clip of the sign used in a phrase
  • a video clip of the phrase used in a sentence
  • a text note about Auslan grammar that is pertinent to the sign, phrase, or sentence. These notes have been included to help the user gain a basic understanding of the grammatical structure of Auslan.
Click here for all the information from RIDBC

1 comment:

Aileen said...

Hi

Aileen again. Also have the Auslan Tutor on Elysha's Ipod. Being A Makaton Presenter, Key Word signing and Auslan user with Elysha I was interested to see what it was like.
Great program - user wise - Elysha loves playing with it and showing me new signs.
BUT if you are only using some sign with your child there are too many differences between this program and what is available and being used thru Makaton.
Those regional differences come to the front again and this being between what was placed in the Makaton book for use in NSW and what is in the Auslan Tutor program. Also found that when two versions of a sign were being offered it was not necessarily the one sued in our state or vis versa.
Parents who are quite heavily involved in sign language because their children are using lots and need more than Makaton may enjoy.

The best part of course is the cheap price (only $49.95) but of course the application will only work on Iphone (expensive) and Ipod touch $330).